Digital Marketing Mastery for Lawyers: Recent Episodes
Chris Hargreaves: Lawyer (attorney)
This is a show for lawyers who want to master the digital strategies they need to succeed in their practice. We will show you digital marketing strategies that help lawyers incorporate proven techniques into your marketing and business growth strategies, to help you increase your reach, gain more attention, build trust and ultimately get more clients. In these episodes you will learn what works and what doesn't in the digital marketing space. We'll look at how to build real relationships with online tools, how to create media that people care about, and how to turn online relationships to real paying customers for your practice. Learn how to be visible in your industry, and a sought after expert in your field. Find out how to position yourself in your practice in a way that will capture the attention of the people you care about. Incorporate content marketing strategies into your practice.
I get it - we all like hiding behind the fairly comfortable set or writing skills we developed as lawyers, and kind of hate the sound of our voices in recordings, or the way we look in videos. It's time to get past it, because the success of your firm's marketing efforts might just depend upon it. Don't worry though - we're here to help.
You sit down at your computer, ready to "do some marketing". You blink a few times, and realise that an enormous amount of time has passed. Worse - you haven't achieved very much. What's gone wrong, and how do we fix it? Find out in this episode.
With so much data available to you now, what measurements actually matter? Are follower counts really just "vanity" metrics or is there something else to it?
Lawyers are great 'n' all, but that doesn't mean we're trying to get them as clients. So why is it that so many firms produce content on topics for lawyers, written in a style that only lawyers care about?
Spending an hour early on in your marketing efforts isn't the same as spending an hour 3 years later with a bunch of expertise under your belt.
Lawyers are spending more and more on Google Ads - but are you getting the best bang for your buck?
One of the easiest marketing strategies to implement is also one of the best - just be nicer to people. No - not bland, uninteresting and inoffensive - nicer. Let's talk about that.
You hear it a lot - post consistently or you'll fail! But is it true? Do you really need to post at the same time, the same day, regularly?
As an up and coming younger lawyer, at some point you will be encouraged to do more marketing. The only problem? That suggestion comes with precisely no relaxation of your billable targets or current workload.
I mean, it might not. In fact, it's the most simple idea in the world, but it's a good one. And you know how many people actually do it? Basically none...
All good things must come to an end - and your content is no different. Sometimes you just have to say goodbye, and delete a bunch of your old or terribly performing content.
While researching which microphone is "best" for 100 hours is a common activity, that doesn't make it a particularly sensible one. So seriously: is it the microphone problem that's actually stopping you from your marketing efforts? I doubt it...
Often our marketing ideas are bigger than our ability to execute - so what do we do when the grand plans fall into a grand heap?
If you've been ignoring the advice to start a podcast for a few years now, the question is going to come up at some point: is it too late? Answer... in this episode.
Video marketing might be all the rage, but if you're not assessing a few simple presentation methods along the way then you're missing an opportunity to improve.
Gets a bit annoying doesn't it - you have this cool thing to say but realise as you go to say that... somebody else said it first. So what should you do?
Do you ever wonder if you're going to "run out" of content? Fear not - it's actually OK to say the same thing more than once...
Many law firms are just letting SEO "professionals" have a crack at making their sites more search engine friendly... which would be fine if they didn't make all of your content utter garbage in the process.
I hear a lot of people concerned about connecting with their colleagues on linkedin. In this episode I explain why it's not a terrible idea, and how you can actually benefit from it.
Getting people to read your stuff is pretty hard. But this simple tip will help your law firm's blog at least be relevant and useful for the people you care about.
Lots of lawyers have blogs that they actively maintain. The articles cost a bomb to produce and are legally sound pieces of work. Yet - they're not seeing the promised results of blogging. Should they just denounce blogging as a waste of time? Or is there perhaps something they're missing...?
Analytics are great, but so often we get caught up in the nonsense numbers that don't actually tell us anything useful. Dig a bit deeper and you'll see the real benefits of improving your video marketing with analytics.
Sometimes stuff happens, and when it does do you have the necessary information to protect or salvage your information from your marketing agency? More and more I'm seeing marketing agencies who set things up for clients but don't give them the information they need to access it themselves. Then guess what? They get fired or go out of business, and all of a sudden you're left down a particular creek without a particular instrument. Don't let that be you - listen to this podcast and put it into practice today.
What if you run a law firm with larger corporate clients or a category where it's pretty unlikely that anybody's going to decide which lawyer to use based on a Google search. Is SEO still something you need to care about?
As lawyers we're pretty good at having opinions, planning and strategy, but much less good at actually getting stuff done. This episode is about how to get stuff done.
Sure it's tempting to use this as your main decision making tool, but you really shouldn't.
I know that every lawyer who uses their valuable time wants a degree of certainty about what's going to happen next - how many clients will call, how much money will I make, how many files will I open. But the maths is a bit more complicated than that. Bring on the Hargreaves theory of maybes.
If you're one of the many people who would like to know how long it's going to take for your digital marketing efforts to pay off, then this one is for you.
One of the best ways you can start to enrich your social media feeds and your content marketing efforts is by implementing a nice content mix into your system. In this episode I talk about why that is and how you can go about doing it.
Within the concept of "known, liked and trusted" is the important aspect of being likeable. Most lawyers I've met are, in fact, likeable in real life (although not all, but that's a story for another day). However their digital presence often gives off different vibes. Perhaps they seem aloof, disengaged, rude or even offensive. So let's talk about how simply focusing on being friendly can help your marketing efforts.
Somewhere along the way, a message has started creeping out that creating precious little content as part of your digital marketing campaign is a good idea. Now I accept that content should be high quality, and that blog posts by lawyers are notoriously terrible. But that doesn't mean I'm in favour of LESS content. In fact, I think you should be smart about producing as much content as humanly possible. Let's chat.
You've really only got these two things to work with: time and money. So where should you allocate each of them?
The prevailing answer when I asked this recently on LinkedIn was... "heck no!".
But is that right? Are the risks of having an opinion stated in public simply too high?
I'm not 100% sure...
Of the many reasons that law firms start their own blogs, one of the most significant and common is that they are absolutely convinced that churning out oodles of content is going to help their search engine strategy.
But is that true? If not… why not?
Find out in this episode!
You'd think, since we offer digital marketing services for lawyers, that we'd be all in favour of digital forming the mainstay of all marketing efforts, right?
Let's find out.
With momentum discussed, what about we chat about mass? Yes - your firm has a mass which requires a certain amount of force to get it moving. So how are we going to start that, and is your firm more like a big rock or an octopus?
Of the things most likely to help you continue moving when you don't feel like it, momentum is high on the list.
Let's talk about some physics - yes it matters.
Somewhere, deep in our training, lies this unusual pathology that lawyers develop. Basically, it insists that the "lawyer" us and the "human" us need to be kept apart from each other.
Kind of like trying not to cross the streams.
But is that really an effective, or even plausible, approach to marketing?
It's tempting to just go straight for the business account option when you're setting up your instagram account, but is that really the right decision or are there some things you should think about first?
Well - it's probably right.
But let's talk about why, just in case you were wondering what the difference was.
Good question! There are pros and cons to both, and it depends on the size of your firm and the nature of your practice.
But ultimately, one option shines out over the other.
Let's start nice and easy with basic but effective instagram strategies.
We're going to focus on engagement here, not publication. Although the temptation is to start the other way around, for lawyers the struggle is normally getting connected - so let's front load that part!
How to get going in the space when you're short on experience, expertise, time and money. Yes - it's still possible!
Somewhere between obsessing about how you look and not caring at all is the place to be when it comes to getting the right headshot for social media.
So how do we do that?
Just because you don't have time to write a huge blog post every day doesn't mean that you can't still get useful content out there.
Here's how to do it.
While I don't do a lot of live video myself, it certainly has some appeal on a number of levels.
Here are a few reasons you might want to consider live video as part of your content mix, even if it's not the mainstay of your operation.
Yes I'm aware of the irony of this question, given that this entire podcast series is also a video series.
But let's explore the issue properly and find out whether the current flavour of the marketing month is actually worth it.
A common problem for lawyers - just how much of our craft should we give away in the form of content, and what are the risks of doing so?
As you'll see, if we ask a slightly different question most of the problems with this dilemma go away (but not quite all).
Most firms have brand pages across social media by now, and some have high hopes for developing a truck load of followers.
But the question you need to ask is this: why should I, or anyone else for that matter, follow YOUR brand page? What exactly does it have to offer?
While one of the big appeals of digital marketing is the sheer scope of what you can achieve with huge numbers of people, for lawyers aiming for astronomic numbers isn't necessarily the best aim for the game.
If you've ever tried to get into the exercise game, you know it's not a matter of busting your guts out for a week and then letting the next 51 slide.
No - it's about constantly showing up, getting stronger and better and faster.
Digital marketing is kind of the same... but less sweaty.
If you're just getting into the game, then the big wide world of digital marketing options is probably going to seem a bit overwhelming.
But, you know you need to do something. The "go to" for many people is going to be blogging, but while that's a great content type for lawyers I'm not 100% convinced that's actually where I would start if I had my time over.
Find out what I'd do in this episode.
If you're going to produce... stuff... then how much do you need to care about whether it looks like it came out of Hollywood ?
Hmmm - as many times as I have tried, I've probably failed.
So what makes you so special?
It's tempting, as a "professional" (whatever that means) to keep ourselves suited up, serious minded and extremely conservative at all times.
Unfortunately, from a content marketing perspective, the result is that we're also super boring a lot of the time.
And in a sea of information, who in their right mind is going to pick the most boring thing they can find, if there's an viable alternative?
So the trick is... don't be boring.
Just in case you need it. Or perhaps a refresher on what the point of all this really is.
Yes - I said joy.
Honest.
I mean - not joy in the sense of overwhelming and inescapable inner peace, but at least some sense of vague understanding.
The final episode of 2018 is a bit different - let's take a look at 3 big areas that you need to be thinking about in your 2019 digital marketing efforts.
Are you ready?
So it would be nice to have a $5m ad spend each year, to kickstart our efforts and drive the necessary attention our way.
But most of us don't have that.
So what do we need to keep in mind in terms of expectations in our digital marketing? It's something I mentioned right at the start of this series...
I regularly recommend that people "get amongst it" on social media by commenting more on other people's posts.
This isn't always received with enormous support, with some wondering how a little comment here and there could possibly make any difference to their marketing strategy.
That's a fair topic for discussion... so let's discuss it!
I bang on regularly about how poorly written some legal articles are.
Despite this, as lawyers we convince ourselves that we're good writers, which is only a partial truth at best. We might be (although rarely are) good at writing a particular type of legal document.
But that doesn't mean we're good at copywriting for marketing purposes.
So what's the first thing we can do to start on the road to recovery?
One of the most powerful ways of getting yourself in front of a wider audience and positioning yourself as an expert is through newsjacking.
Not heard the term before? No problem - let's chat about what it is and how it can help you.
Building a database is one thing, but deciding what to actually send it is a completely different decision.
Most law firms send out newsletters or links to their latest articles. That's fine (if you go for that kind of thing) but what else are you going to send people to mix it up a bit and offer them real value for being your best fans?
Here are three ideas you can use easily and often.
It's true - I rant and rave about how much I dislike the stock standard "timely reminder" case law, legislative or academic legal updates. They stink, and they're boring.
But I'm not against legal updates entirely - just ones that are done poorly.
So let's see how we might be able to sharpen our attention on making this fundamental content type a bit better.
Lots of lawyers know (or at least, think perhaps) that video marketing could be a powerful tool in their arsenal.
But despite having the fleeting thought, most do very little about it.
All sorts of barriers might prevent you from getting started, so in this episode I'm trying to remove a few of them.
Image for a second if you joined an association, said hello to one person at the start of the year, and then missed 29 consecutive events.
How do you think it would go if on event number 30 you showed up an asked to give a speech about your product or service? Asking people to hire you as their lawyer?
It would go badly. And there's a good reason for that.
Should you obsess over the best time of day, the best day of the week, the best content type, the precise word count that achieves the best results?
While I love a good algorithm chat now and again, we have to be a bit cautious about going nuts over the whole thing.
Let's chat about an approach that won't result in you wearing aluminium on your head, but won't totally ignore the process completely.
Something's wrong - I post and post and post, I share and share and share, and every day my reach on social media gets smaller and smaller.
What's going on? Does Facebook simply hate me? Am I doing something wrong? Are the coding the algorithm to frustrate my efforts entirely?
Or is it that Facebook just "doesn't work"?
There's a good chance you're about to listen to a podcast about podcasting, which I accept is a little odd.
And given that I have a few podcasts going, you might think that my answer to this is predictable.
But perhaps it isn't going to be what you think...
Yes I said it - SEO matters.
But far from the domain of the ultra-nerdy, or perhaps the super-technical lawyer, SEO is a necessary skill for any legal business owner.
But why? Why can you not simply delegate everything to an SEO agency and hope that they're going to do a bang up job?
Here's why...
Lawyers have lots of opinions about lots of stuff.
But when it comes to your opinion on social media, digital marketing, blogging or anything else that might be a little outside your comfort zone... what are you basing those opinions on?
Are you going with the people who have experience and success in the area? Or are you going with Joe, the guy you spoke with yesterday who has strong opinions but no actual experience?
You probably get a few email newsletters yourself, right? They come in packed with promise, articles, links, quotes and much more.
So the question of the day is... should YOU produce an email newsletter.
Will it WOW your readers, build your audience and work wonders for your firm?
Or is it just a waste of time...
Vanity, vanity, everything is vanity...
Including the metrics that many marketing teams tell their firms mean they're doing well on social media.
But then, not everything is always as doom and gloom as all that - sometimes vanity metrics actually mean something. But does that make them not vanity metrics anymore?
It's all very confusing - just listen to the episode and it'll make more sense.
It's not because social media is bad, and it's not because the platforms are hard to use.
It's because you don't have a plan.
Spending enormous amounts of time on social media, scrolling through news feeds, clicking random buttons, and hoping that something good will happen.
This is the social media "strategy" of many lawyers. And it's a terrible one.
Lawyers love to overspend on website design. We get custom bells and whistles, hard coded solutions to non-existent problems, and complicated sites that we don't understand how to use.
Or, we could go for a DIY website where we understand the nuts and bolts, how to use it and what to do with it.
But is that really the best idea? After all, you don't really want the home-made look when it comes to your website design.
So what's the deal?
https://youtu.be/cC6ob8sw02A
Many lawyers I speak to are reluctant (read: totally unwilling) to share anything at all created by another lawyer.
The concern is, of course, that when they do so everyone who sees it will think "ah-huh! Lawyer A is clearly inferior to lawyer B, because they shared lawyer B's content. Therefore all our business in the future shall go to lawyer B".
In short, it's the mentality of someone living in competition land.
So let's think about this for a minute - is that concern justified, or irrational? If you were interested in curating some content rather than producing everything yourself, how could you do it without crossing that line?
Lawyers were pretty late to the party when it comes to getting a website up and running.
Now, in an effort to catch up with our past laggard status, we've embraced the concept... by finding the most expensive custom website designers we can possibly find and paying them enormous amounts of money.
For very little benefit.
Find out what I mean, and what you can do about it at a threshold level before you even start sketching out a wireframe for your next website, or talking with a designer.
It's an odd thing, but although many firms have systems for collecting email addresses into a gigantic database, not many are actually using that database effectively.
When I explore this, it's often because the lawyers are afraid of putting off their prospects or clients by sending them emails.
Which leads to this question: why collect the information at all, if you're not going to use it?
Pretty much all law firms and lawyers accept a basic need to have social media be a part of their marketing efforts.
Unfortunately, despite that, many have also decided that social media is such a risky minefield of danger that they put in place an unlimited set of barriers in place to prevent their lawyers doing anything "wrong".
The outcome usually isn't safety - it's complete and total inactivity.
With the result that your attempt to save your firm is in fact going to kill it.
Read Full Transcript
transcript TBC
Lots of lawyers write articles, so it's hardly news to the legal industry that blogging can help you business.
So what about the problem many law firms face: they blog regularly, but aren't seeing any results from it?
There's one likely reason that's holding your blog back from success. Let's see if we can solve that today.
Writing, images, video, audio - these are essentially your only options when it comes to producing content.
But which is the "best" and what's going to get you the most traction?
The answer is probably going to be annoying...
While it's tempting to get caught up in the never ending sea of options, tools and gimmicks that are available to help you "hack" your digital marketing, the truth is that there's only ever been one rule of marketing.
Do you know what it is?
https://youtu.be/-UKepDiqDOA
Let's get the digital marketing podcast on the road! If I was to ask you what the number 1 barrier to you or your firm achieving its marketing goals was, what would you say? For the vast majority, it's going to be this: TIME. We just don't get stuff done, because we don't have the time. Let's fix that - starting now. Read Full Transcript - - If I was to ask you what the number one barrier to successfully delivering on your digital marketing strategy was, in your firm or your practise, what would you say? My guess is that you and the majority of lawyers that I might ask are going to say something like, we're not executing on the strategy. That is, we're not delivering, we're not doing the things that we thought we would have time to do because we all got too busy and so we pushed it to one side. This is reliably the answer when I ask what the barriers are and that's what we're going to talk about today. My name is Chris Hargreaves, I am from digitalmarketingforlawyers.com and this is the Digital Marketing Mastery Series. I have specifically started this series, and this is episode number one, so you haven't missed anything if this is where you're starting. This is the only episode where I will mention what the number is 'cause it's the only one I'm going to remember. This series is designed to provide practical execution strategies for you so that you can actually be doing things. That means the episodes are going to be fairly short, that means they are going to be practical. I might occasionally have a chat about strategic decision making, I might occasionally have an idea to share or a tool to recommend, but by and large, the majority of what you're going to hear here is going to involve actually doing something, or having the opportunity to do something. And if you play along at home or in your office and you actually do 10 or 20 or 50% even of the things that I'm going to suggest might be beneficial for you, then you're going to find that you will experience a remarkable uplift in the success of your digital marketing programme within your firm or with you as a practitioner, individually. And so, where are we going to start with? We're going to start with that practicality because I think lawyers are very good at having opinions and I think we're incredibly good at producing detailed, strategic marketing plans that have a tendency to be a two-inch thick booklet that gets generated extremely optimistically at some kind of retreat or some kind of marketing day offsite, or it gets generated by someone else entirely and just delivered to you and you're supposed to do it. But the fact is, most of the time, nobody does anything in those documents. And so you come back to it one or two or five years later and you dust it off 'cause it's been sitting in a drawer and absolutely none of it has actually turned into any actions on your part. And so what I want to say to you today is this, do less, commit to less, and then actually deliver on it. And that might mean, if you are starting from zero, if you are literally too busy in your own mind to do anything, but you appreciate the importance of having to get to marketing, that might mean you find two minutes in a day to comment on one post on LinkedIn with a person who is valuable. Maybe it means you find five minutes to send an email each day to someone you haven't actually caught up with. Maybe it means you just find 30 seconds in a day to send a connection request on LinkedIn. Now, these are just examples. The practical thing for today is this. Stop over-committing your marketing endeavours with extremely optimistic views about what you can and cannot get done. If you have spent the last five years too busy to breathe or do anything, the chances that you can then say, okay, I am definitely going to commit four hours every week to my marketing efforts, it's not going to happen.